Early day track star beat out jackrabbit

If Abilene Christian University's so-called "Texas Sports
Dynasty of the Century" formally began with track coach
Oliver Jackson back in 1948 - well, that's all right by
86-year-old Elmer Womack.

When ACU mounted a mammoth luncheon Saturday to honor
coaches and athletes from the university's track heyday,
low-key, good-humored Womack was just tickled to be around
to witness it all.

Womack set a few track records of his own at what was
then Abilene Christian College during the final days of the
Great Depression. And while he doesn't exactly fall into the
"dynasty" period so ordained by Texas Monthly, he's still a
track legend.

After all, Elmer Womack was so fast that, during his days
at Abilene Christian College, he actually outran a West
Texas jackrabbit - probably his chief claim to fame after
eight decades.

If that seems a relatively minor accomplishment, some of
us should stop and reflect how, after so many years, we're
known for even less than that.

Womack, who lives near Killeen, was something of an
old-timer during his track days at ACC. Because he'd worked
some before seeking a college education at a Church of
Christ institution, he was older than many students and was
fondly addressed as "Dad."

But, boy, could that "old man" run.

Even before the skinny athlete joined the track team,
Womack gave evidence of his stamina, hitchhiking from East
Texas to ACC. When he arrived in town, he had nary a cent
and spent his first night sleeping beneath a billboard along
Ambler Avenue.

"I didn't have a bit of money," he remembers.

Everything he owned was in his guitar case - and that
obviously wasn't much because the case also contained a
guitar, one he claimed was once played by Jimmie Rodgers,
the so-called "Singing Brakeman."

Womack says he wasn't very good on the instrument, but it
wasn't for lack of trying. He tried so much, in fact, the
guitar finally fell to pieces.

But, again, Elmer Womack was good at running, enough to
win an ACC scholarship. Skills gained from his boyhood -
running several miles to pick up his father's paycheck at
work, then all the way back home - left him a formidable
athlete alongside the likes of Horace Templeton, Ray Rushing
and Joe Beadles.

And then there was that jackrabbit.

Man vs. rabbit

In 1941, while the ACC track was being dragged and dust
was flying, a large, floppy-eared, scared jackrabbit
suddenly leaped into view and the chase was on, one
involving several ACC track members, plus track coach Tonto
Coleman.

"Around and around the baseball park, then down the
field, over fences, across the football field, ran the
long-legged animal with the track men and Tonto in hot
pursuit," claimed an amused newspaper reporter of the day.
"But besides growing fast jackrabbits in West Texas, they
also grow fast men.

"Elmer Womack, returning relay man and holder of many
distance records, soon overtook the animal, captured and
returned the captive back to the stadium where, with broad
grin and redness of face, he had his picture taken with his
prize."

The jackrabbit was then turned loose, and the men
returned to their dusty field tasks.

Both the jackrabbit and Womack went on to other things,
now obscured by the dust of time. For Womack, that meant
service during World War II, then work as a teacher and
coach in Killeen and, still later, time spent as a truant
officer.

In more recent years, Womack underwent a heart bypass
operation during which doctors remarked he still had, in
many ways, the heart of a young man, undoubtedly from his
early athletic pursuits. But all that running through the
years also wore out the rest of him, so that in old age he
required new hips.

Today the details of Womack's days chasing area wildlife,
running track at ACC and playing Jimmie Rodgers' guitar are
fast fading. But last weekend he sheepishly took his place
among those earlier athletes who laid the foundation for a
virtual track dynasty reaching from ACU around the
globe.

And how many of those much-ballyhooed later stars, I
wonder, could actually outrun a West Texas jackrabbit?

If you are a member of the media who would like more
information about this release, please contact Tom
Craig, director of media and community relations, at
craigt@acu.edu or call
915-674-2692 (cell phone: 665-5469).